


The Hedge and the Heart

by if_i_go_there_will_be_trouble



Category: Supernatural
Genre: ASL, American Sign Language, Deaf, Deaf Culture, F/F, F/M, Reunited and It Feels So Good, death shows up, mute!reader - Freeform, sign langauge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 12:56:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8286647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/if_i_go_there_will_be_trouble/pseuds/if_i_go_there_will_be_trouble
Summary: Y/N is a hedge witch Benny's been seeing.  And when Sam and Dean finally decide to see if it's possible to get their brother, Adam, back, they see if Y/N can contact them.
But she can do a lot more.Death owes her a favor for a mistake he made.And she might cash in.





	

“You ain’t gonna act like that, when you see her,” Benny said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he pulled on the cigarette and breathed out smoke.  When he spoke, he seemed to elongate vowles and drop consonants, like he was singing some folk tune instead of speaking.

“Act like how?” Dean asked, fanning the smoke away from his face.  

“Exactly like that,” Benny chuckled.  “She ain’t a talker outside of her house.  But she’s got a lot to say so listen close.  And don’t be fuckin’ rude, okay?  She’s self-conscious about her neck, so don’t go askin’ unless you lookin’ for me to beat your ass.”  Benny flicked the butt to the ground and crushed it under his heel.  He sighed and looked over to Dean, Sam and Castiel, gesturing to a red door three houses down.   “C’mon boys, she’s waitin’.”

The red door opened, and a tall woman stepped out.  She wore simple jeans and a blouse, her hair braided to the side with flyaways around her like a halo.  Her neck was covered by a thick scarf that didn’t seem to fit the temperature, because even though the sun set it was still hot out in summertime Alabama.  She stepped down and walked to Benny, and she seemed to be laughing but no sound came out, only ragged breaths.  Benny opened his arms to her and she ran to him, wrapping his arms around her.  She whispered to him, and Sam tried to hear what she said, but it was like she didn’t have a voice. Benny laughed out loud, kissing her on both cheeks.

She turned to Sam, Dean and Cas.  She began to move her hands, in odd symbols and quickly.: _Why, Benny, you brought the Winchesters.  You know I don’t like them._ Dean stepped back and went for a switchblade in his jacket pocket.  

“Idiots, she’s signing,” Benny said.  He signed back to her: _It’s going to be a good visit.  It’s the one you and Adam have been hoping for._ The woman eyed him, seeming to stare him down with the kind of intensity usually seen when an artist is looking at a blank canvas.

“Signing?” Dean asked.

“As in American Sign Language, Dean,” Sam put in.

The woman smiled and shook her head, signing something to Benny: _They aren’t too bright, are they?  Can’t tell the difference between ASL and witchcraft._

“Nah, love, they don’t understand ASL, or much of anythin’,” Benny said.

“And you do?” Dean asked, incredulous.

“It’s the fourth most used language in the US of A, boys,” Benny shot at him.

“You learned for her, didn’t you?” Cas questioned.

The woman glanced at Benny, smirking a little.

“Maybe,” Benny murmured, pulling the girl to him by her wrist as she continued to sign at him, pulling free and grinning: _Darling, you can’t hide your feelings from anyone, can you?_

“Oh hush, so what if I got a little crush?” Benny mumbled to her.  

_A little crush?  Sometimes I think you can’t even remember your own birthday around me._

“Well it was a long time ago, wasn’t it?” Benny chuckled.

“Is there any way we can hear her?’

“You coulda learned some ASL?” Benny suggested.  

The woman rolled her eyes.  She gestured for them to follow her and walked into her house.  Sam and Dean walked into the sitting room, somewhere full of couches and candles, a cheap fluorescent above them covered by a thin tapestry she probably bought from Amazon to complete the psychic look.  She unwound the scarf from around her neck.  

Dean and Sam looked curiously at her neck, but what they saw made their skin crawl and they looked away, trying to take in the jars full of incense sticks and tarot cards and ouija board.  Castiel didn’t avert his eyes, despite the fact Benny noticed and looked like was about to tackle Cas.  Her neck had a ragged scar, still red and angry across, but gray and shiny with scar tissue.  She picked up a jar from the table and rubbed some of it on her neck, and then gasped in air.  

“My god, I hate doing that,” she said.  Her voice was low and rough.  She started coughing and Benny gave her a tissue from the box on the table near him.  Continuing to gag into the square of thin paper.  Benny stepped to her and rubbed her back.  Her back seemed to curl as she coughed, and then the coughing calmed and she pulled away, crumpling up the tissue, but not before Sam could see the stain of red on it.

“Sorry ‘bout that, boys.  The spell only works in my house, and it isn’t the best.  Black magic is a lot stronger, but I don’t use that anymore,” she said.  “Y/N, by the way.  Y/N L/N.  It’s nice to meet the Winchesters and their angel,, finally.”  Her voice was softer now, smoother, but still seemed like it didn’t fit her.  “Will you sit down?  The way your eyes are fluttering to everything but my neck is making us all rather— on edge.”  She gestured to a few couches and armchairs circling around a coffee table.  

Castiel and Dean sat down on a couch together, Sam sitting down in a plush armchair, crossing one leg over the other and stretching one hand over the back of the cushions.  Dean leaned back, his arms folding over his chest. Castiel leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.

“I guess we should get down to business,” Benny said.  “Before your talkin’ spell goes.”

 “Hmm,” she hummed, “Yes, Benny, why’d you bring me such fine guests on such short notice?” She asked, and smiled at Sam and Dean.  

“Y/N, we need your help,” Sam started.

“Obviously,” Y/N said, rolling her eyes.  

“Adam, we need to talk to Adam Milligan,” Dean said.

She looked over at Dean, her eyes becoming half-lidded.  “Your brother.  You left him in the cage.  It’s been a long while.  Why you trying to talk to him now?”

Castiel’s mouth opened in a question.

“You left him.  Left him there with Lucy and Mikey, and aren’t they shit company?”  She said, closing her eyes now, the lids still twitching.  

“I thought you said she was one of those that talks with the dead, not one of those that can see your past and all,” Dean murmured to Benny.

“She ain’t, she’s a hedge witch,” Benny replied.  “You’ve been playing with the frequencies, darlin’?”

“Hedge witch?” Sam asked.

“Once you’ve been past the threshold of life and death, straddled it, and gotten out— it marks you.  You both know.  Given how many times you were there and back and there and back.  But I wasn’t lucky like you two.  I was stretched between hell and limbo, flipping back and forth every so often.”

“How would that happen?” Castiel asked, his eyes slits again.  

Benny growled, “Ain’t your place to ask, angel.”

Y/N coughed.  “Going back and forth, it left my imprint there.  Then an angel pulled me to heaven, when I was in limbo with Benny here.  Thanks for that, Castiel.  But you threw Benny to Earth.”  She glared at Castiel.  

“He wasn’t someone I could sneak on the invite list to heaven.  But I did make him human,” Castiel muttered.  “But you didn’t answer–”

“And she ain’t gonna,” Benny said, looking like he was about to slap the angel.

Y/N shrugged.  “I was still fluttering, flickering though.  That time between Earth and heaven.  None of the angels seemed to notice, that I was breaking apart like that.  But Benny did.  Benny was able to get me on home.  Made a deal with Crowley, and Crowley remembered my name.  He owed me some favors from hell.  And I got back on Earth.  But not without a reminder.”  She sighed.  “So, boys, I’m a hedge witch.  The only one in a long while.  And I got a line to the cage.  Not that I use it much.  First one to talk to me was Lucy.  All he damn well does is talk. Then Michael, who just wanted out and about and to fight Lucy on Earth.  And then, a quiet little kid.  Scared, too.  He would whisper to me.  And I got to know him.  I spent a lot of time talking with him.  Poor little lonely thing.  And he needed someone. He needed you two.  He needed brothers.”  She finished, looking at them.  

Sam tilted his head forward in shame, and Dean looked like he was about to cry or punch a hole in the wall.  

“I didn’t have a choice,” Dean murmured.

“You did.  And you chose right.  You chose right by yourself and by Sam and by the fate of the world,” Y/N said, “Adam sees that.  But you didn’t do right by him.  By Adam.  But why now?”

“We want to apologize.  We want to see if he knows a way out,” Sam said, trying to clear his throat.  

Y/N looked at them, her eyes barely opening.  “I can do you all one better.  Death owes me, and he’s been looking to repay me.”

Dean’s eyes went wide, he breath caught in his throat.  He didn’t want to hope or believe, but ‘want’ is different than fact.  And the fact was he started hoping and believing Y/N wasn’t lying to him.  Sam trembled beside him.

“Why does Death owe you?” Castiel asked.  

“That’s my business,” Y/N sighed, looking to Benny.  She signed: you said that wouldn’t be asking things.

He signed back: I’m sorry, love.  They aren’t trusting.

She signed: No one trusts in this kind of world.  Doesn’t mean they should be asking.

“What’re you saying?” Dean asked.

“We’re talkin’ about how someone who’s being offered something this generous shouldn’t be askin’ questions when I told them fuckin’ not to,” Benny snapped.

“I’ll let you talk to Adam, if you’re feeling that.  And I’ll give Death a call.  Bring Adam back,” Y/N said, grimacing at the three men.  “I could be paying back Castiel, for accidentally throwing me to heaven.  But I’m giving you all a lot of interest on an overdue loan.  I need something from you all”

“What?  To heal your neck?”  Cas asked.

“No one can fix what Death did but Death,” she said.  “And I like myself how I am.”

“Then what do you want?” Sam probed.

“Agree, without knowing the cost,” Y/N said.  

“Why?” Castiel asked, “What are you trying to do?  Trying to make us do?”

“I agree,” Dean stated.  He glared at Y/N, so sure, still with a martyrdom complex that could trump anyone in the world.

Sam looked at Dean, and breathed in carefully, “I follow Dean.”

Castiel stared at Y/N, and then at Dean, and then back again.  “We don’t even know what she wants, what she will take.”

“This is our one chance to save Adam,” Dean said, “and I’m taking it.”  He turned to Castiel, “We got to do this, Cas.  We can’t leave Adam in there.”

Castiel rubbed his temples, then nodded to Dean.  

“Did you hear us, Death?” Y/N asked, looking around behind her.  There stood the man, in his black attire and hollow face.  Death walked to Y/N, and sat down in the last open armchair.  Cas leaned back, his wings tingling in the presence of something older than anything he had known.  Dean refused to turn his face from the entity, but every muscle in his body wanted to shiver and the gooseflesh was crawling up his arms.   Sam’s jaw clenched, his brow furrowing.  His instincts made him want to go for the knife in his boot.  But he knew better.  You can’t kill Death.

“You want to use my favor on the Winchesters?”  Death asked.

“I’ll use it as I want,” Y/N replied.  

Dean smirked at how calm she was in front of Death, how she seemed like she wouldn’t beg or take any of his insults.  

“And the wall, to block his memories of hell, I assume you want that in the deal?” Death asked.  “Because I won’t do it.  Not this time.  You can have the boy, but then I consider my debt and shame fairly managed.”

Sam gulped, remembering how horrible the memories were, how it could tear him apart.  And Adam?  Without them?  Without that protection?  He would go insane.  He could die.  Addendum: he would go insane and then die.

“I’ll take the deal, Death,” Y/N said.  

Death grimaced, then rubbed his hands together, twisting the ring on his finger, “Then my debt is repaid, in full.  Adam will come to your door in seven hours.  What you do then is your decision.  But, fair warning,” he stood up, looking down at Y/N, “I will be keeping my eye on you.”

“Go ahead and watch.  I’ll try to be interesting,” Y/N replied.  

“And, Y/N,” Death said, his face seeming to soften, though none of them could believe it, “I reiterate my apology.  Though I’ve helped you, enough to consider just pretending this was one chapter in my never ending book, I still will not forget my mistake.”

“Don’t make it again, Death.  I don’t think you’d like to have another person like me to deal with,” Y/N responded, almost teasing.

“You might have the right of that.  But, then again, I doubt there will ever be someone to cause me this much… guilt.  At least of your species, or galaxy,” Death said, and then he  was gone.  

Y/N breathed out, as if she had been holding all the air in.  

“You okay, love?” Benny asked her.

She signed at him: _I hate seeing him.  I know he wouldn’t do it again, but he makes me feel ill._

Sam turned to Y/N, “Thank you, Y/N, I mean it.”

“You won’t be thanking me if you’re here when Adam shows.  I’ll take care of him.  I’ll help him.  I’ll give him the foundation to find something close enough to a normal life.  But you three,” she pointed at Sam, Dean and Castiel, “need to leave.  You need to leave now and quick and be far away before Adam comes.  I have a lot of work to do.”

“What will you do for him?  Why can’t we see him?  What the hell is going on?” Dean asked, almost yelling, something like fear turning face quickly to anger.

“I’ve had people like Adam before.  One person, someone I was madly in love with.  That love almost messed the whole thing up.  I can’t have it here.  Adam needs someone objective.  He needs someone calm.  And he needs someone who talked to him in the cage.  And none of you fit any of those criteria,” she said.  “Leave.  Come back in a month.  Or you don’t see him at all and I send him somewhere safe.”

“You can’t do that!” Sam stated, standing up.

Y/N stood up too, and around her, the air seemed to crackle, static filling their ears, “Here’s your options, dream team,” she said, putting up one finger, “you can wait for Adam, and risk any chance of him getting better,” and then she put up a second finger, “or you can go, and Adam has a fighting chance, but he’s in my care until he’s better.  My care and my care alone.  Your choice.”

Dean seemed to crumple a little, and the brothers nodded, almost in defeat.  Benny led them out as she settled back into her armchair, starting to cough again as the spell wore off.

Castiel bent over her, his blue eyes level with hers.  “I don’t trust you.  There is no way you could be phasing in and out of heaven, hell, earth and purgatory like that.  No one has that ability.  No human.”

She glared at him, “You heard Death,” she started, but then the coughing overtook her.  

Castiel waited for her to finish, but she couldn’t.  Benny returned, looking like he wanted to stab Cas with the nearest object, even a tissue box.  Castiel disappeared into thin air, his lips pull into a scowl like the drawstrings of a bag.

 

                                                **************************

 

Sam, Dean and Castiel stood outside the red door exactly one month later. Sam’s heart was in his throat, Dean’s seemed to be in the soles of his feet, while Cas’s seemed to be firmly in his chest, burning up like a pyre.  It was a pyre he wanted to put Y/N on.  

It had been a hard month to wait, even with cases.

Benny knocked on the door, and they all waited like some weird mixture of prey, predator, and in Benny’s special case, lover.

The doorknob turned and it swung open.  

There stood Adam, with his sandy hair and wide eyes, the freckles just like Dean and the eyes like deep ocean hues.  “Y/N said you’d all be here,” he said, seeming to be uncomfortable and awkward with their appearance.  

Dean drew him into a hug, and Sam stood, his eyes getting watery and red.  

“Why don’t you guys come in and sit down?” Adam said.  “Y/N’s just making a pot of coffee.”

They all sat around the same coffee table, while Benny left to ‘talk’ to Y/N.  

“You look well,” Castiel murmured.

“As well as someone can from hell,” Adam joked, but bit his tongue.

“I’m so-” Dean started.

“No,” Adam interrupted, “I know.  I do.  And because of Y/N, maybe I can muster up enough of a damn to forgive you.  But I can’t forget.”

“You remember it all?” Sam asked, his worst fears confirmed.

“Every second.  But that’s not going to drive me to the asylum, if you’re wondering,” Adam sighed.

“How?” Castiel wondered.

“Y/N’s dealt with this before, I mean, before Death fucked her over,” Adam shrugged.

“Wh- what do you mean ‘Death fucked her over’?” Dean questioned.

Adam looked up, and for a moment, there was a shine of mischievous humor in him, “Wow.  She didn’t like you guys did she?  She didn’t even let you in on her super-powered backstory.”  Adam leaned back in the armchair.  “Y/N’s girlfriend went to hell.  Anarchists aren’t on the good kid list.  And Y/N was able to make a deal with Crowley to drag her on out.  But you know demons.  Their shit comes with strings.  And the girlfriend remembered everything.  Almost went crazy.  But Y/N did something like a spell– it was a healing and acceleration.  She was able to make the girl better with some sage and runes and a lot of TLC.  100% PC, PG stuff too.  No dark or black magic.  It almost didn’t work.”

Dean looked at Sam, and back, and then to Castiel.  Of course Crowley had to have his little entertainment.  Of course Crowley’s deals came with strings.  Dean stared at his hands, wondering where this other girl went off too.  He wondered if she loved someone so much to do that kind of a deal.  

Adam plowed on, enjoying sharing the origin story.  Maybe it gave him room.  He didn’t want to talk about himself.  He didn’t want to talk about his brothers or their angel.  He wanted to talk about the woman with the e/c eyes and big smile.  It made him feel normal to share the abnormal about someone else. “Well, Y/N’s girl ran off after that.  Went for some bartender with long hair.  And then Death came for Y/N.  But see, Death did something Death doesn’t do: he made a mistake.  He went to scythe her, and cut her neck and windpipe.  And then she was dragged to Hell.  But Hell didn’t have her name on their roster, or limbo, or heaven.  See, she wasn’t dead.  She wasn’t supposed to be dead.  She met Benny, and they started foolin’ around.  And then Cas grabbed Benny and gave Y/N a kick to heaven, but she wasn’t on their list either.  She was supposed to be alive and she was supposed to be dead and so she was thrown all around for a while.  Until Benny managed to pin her down, with some help from Crowley, because he remembered how she did a deal for a girl and he loved the soap opera twist.”

Cas’s eyes went wide.  “That doesn’t happen.  Death doesn’t make mistakes.”

“He does.  And he feels shit about them after.  A real noble guy, really.  Better than some,” Adam shrugged, his eyes looking up at Sam and Dean for a microsecond to see them squirm.  “So Y/N manages to call up Death using the cut on her throat.  And man, does he feel like an idiot when he checks his lists.  And she’s not supposed to be dead until 2056.  He got it about 40 years off.  So Death gives her a favor.  And she remembers me.  And she waits until you all seem like you might want me back, and gets Death to pull me out.”  Adam paused, cracking his neck, and looked up to Sam and Dean.  They both didn’t seem to even be breathing.

“I asked her to do that.  Even in the cage.  I wanted to be wanted.  I needed to be wanted.  Didn’t want to come home to you all not even caring.  To no one caring. I just didn’t think it would take you so damn long to even try.  Anyway.  I come to, barely lucid, outside a red door.  And everything is loud and overwhelming and I’ve got two shit angels screaming at me.  And there she is.  Y/N.  And she gestures me in and burns sage and puts me to sleep for a long time.  When I wake up, the angels aren’t there.  But the memories are.  But Y/N’s waiting, and she’s got hot cider like my mom used to make and she lays me back and promises it will be alright and rubs my head with markings in holy oil.  I see a shrink now.  You all should, too.  And I take meds.  I still jump at loud sounds.  I can’t be in the dark or closed in.  I have to sleep with lights on.  And fire is too much.  But I’m alive.”  Adam finished.

Y/N walked in, carrying a tray with mugs, cream and sugar.  Benny follows after her, still catching her elbow, as if they are out of sight, and kissing her.  She laughs with no sound, and kisses him back, almost knocking the pot he’s holding over the two of them.

Sam and Dean and Cas stared up at her, the cut evident on her neck.  She put the tray down and reached for some salve.

“No, Y/N,” Adam said.  “I think I’ve got a bit of a hang on ASL.  Benny can correct me.  Why don’t I interpret for you?”  

Y/N looked at Adam, and smiled wide, kissing him on the cheek.  My favorite Winchester boy, she signed.  Adam smiled back at her.  It had been a while since he was a favorite anything.  Y/N sat down by Benny.   _My boys,_ she signs, _you both doing alright?_

Adam signed: _My half-brothers are kind of annoying, right?_

Benny signed: _They’re an acquired taste._

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

“You should learn sign language, boys,” Benny said to them.

“Y/N said I could stay with her a while longer, before I go back for pre-med.  So you might have to,” Adam mentioned, starting to put a lot of cream and sugar into a cup of hot coffee.

“You want to stay here?” Sam asked.

“It’s nice to have a home.” Adam put in.  Y/N gave him the kind of smile mothers give to children or older siblings to much younger ones: soft and kind.  She signed: _You’re welcome to stay. As long as you want.  With Benny and me._


End file.
